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OCD and QAnon: The Obsessive Appeal of Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy theories can easily ensnare anyone with OCD or obsessive tendencies.

Markus Winkler/pexels
Source: Markus Winkler/pexels

One of the most disturbing trends in our current political climate has been seeing earnest, rational people become consumed by conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, the obsessive thinking and unhealthy anxiety symptomatic of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder can make OCD sufferers especially vulnerable to such misinformation. Better understanding the connections between conspiracy thinking and pathological obsession can help both sufferers and non-sufferers avoid these cognitive traps.

Relational and Narrative Thinking

Conspiratorial thinking is a corruption of one of our most basic cognitive abilities. Human intelligence is precisely engineered to make connections between arbitrary ideas. Niklas Törneke explains this remarkable ability through Relational Frame Theory: "The events that are related need not be contingent with each other, either in the present or earlier in our history. And they need not be related according to physical properties either... This skill of relating based on specific contextual cues explains how relations can occur indirectly—without any direct learning" (Learning RFT).

Relating ideas in this way allows humans to perceive causality, reinterpreting both our observations and our memories as a coherent narrative with a beginning, middle, and end. Narrative sequencing is a powerful cognitive tool that helps humans learn from the past and make plans for the future. By constructing and interpreting stories, we can make sense of the world around us.

But while narrative sequencing is useful, it isn't a precision instrument. When we assemble what Törneke calls "an operant sequence of events," it isn't required that "a new event must be identical to have the same function… Instead, two stimuli or two events need only be 'similar enough'." “Similar enough” is where the danger lurks: When events don't fall into a perfect sequence, we allow ourselves some leniency to make all the pieces fit. In The Science of Stories, János László describes "narrative thinking" as "finding plausible or lifelike connections between two events. It establishes not truth, but verisimilitude and coherence." A plausible lie can be more persuasive than a counterintuitive fact.

In psychology, the tendency to falsely perceive patterns in random data or unrelated things is referred to as apophenia — causing us to see images of animals and castles in the clouds, for example. This is the secret engine of conspiracy: a misapplication of the useful skills of pattern recognition and narrative construction. "If one accepts that narrative is a particular mode of experiencing the world, it is not difficult to [accept] the narrative as the medium of constructing the psychological and cultural reality, in which the participants in history actually live" (László).

In order to orient ourselves in the greater narratives of human culture and history, we must first make sense of those narratives; a process that is vulnerable to subtle, pernicious distortions.

Cognitive Rewards: Problem Solving and Anxiety Reduction

Unfortunately, constructing a distorted or biased narrative about events can produce perverse neural rewards: "An individual who enjoys engaging in thinking, preferring complex tasks and ‘figuring things out,’ may come to feel a sense of control or mastery over his or her world and thereby develop a greater sense of self-satisfaction" (Osberg).

And when we’re stressed out, we become especially desperate to make sense of things—at even greater risk of inventing patterns that are inaccurate or irrational. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman explains the seduction of obsessive pattern-seeking: "sense-making machinery… makes us see the world as more tidy, simple, predictable, and coherent than it really is. The illusion that one has understood the past feeds the further illusion that one can predict and control the future. These illusions are comforting. They reduce the anxiety that we would experience if we allowed ourselves to fully acknowledge the uncertainties of existence.”

When we are confounded by undesirable circumstances—such as election uncertainty, or an interminable pandemic—we desperately grasp for some explanation, any explanation, no matter how unlikely or unpleasant. So for QAnon followers, for example, the horrifying prospect of a global conspiracy of satanists and child molesters may actually provide comfort—because that fantasy is less frightening than accepting that events are out of anyone’s control, and no one knows how things will play out.

This is one of the areas where conspiracy thinking overlaps with OCD. OCD is known as “the doubting disorder”; when confronted with uncertainty, OCD sufferers experience irrational anxiety, circular obsessive thoughts, and compulsive ritual behaviors. Conspiracy theories, inspired by anxiety and reinforced by repetition, are perfect fodder for OCD to exploit.

Experiential Reinforcement

Once you've bought into a narrative, the next logical step is to search for evidence that supports it. In conspiracy thinking, this leads to a process of biased information-gathering: Contrary evidence is discredited and even small, arbitrary details are misinterpreted as proof of the grand design. The conspiracy theorist does not passively consume misinformation, but actively seeks out, compiles, and elaborates on it, all the while receiving social reinforcement from fellow theorists.

Studies have shown that cognitively-intense activities such as research and composition have a profound effect on learning. In an experiment conducted by Virginia A. Diehl and Matthew Wyrick, subjects were tested on information retention through a variety of "task engagement conditions" including "Read Only (only reading the procedural text), Read & Watch (reading and watching the experimenter do the task), and Read & Do (reading and doing the task themselves). As predicted, participants in both the Read & Do and Read & Watch conditions did well on the task performance measure because they were both forced to be engaged with doing the task. However, the Read & Do participants did best... Processing the text while being engaged with the task is more complex than simply reading the text."

Multisensory, longitudinal, experiential engagement with conspiracy materials is almost terrifyingly convincing, even when the conspiracy itself is totally unbelievable. The original dispatches from the Q conspirator were deliberately cryptic: "How did Hansel and Gretel survive? > Tricked the old woman, took her jewels and got a ride home from their father" and "What is pol? > chaos incarnate, truth seekers" (Martineau, END GAME).

For an obsessive individual, this kind of prompt opens a door to unlimited conspiracy thinking; because the theories contain no substantive or falsifiable information, they can be interpreted as proof of almost anything. QAnon adherents soon began pouring over media, looking for esoteric clues supposedly encoded using numerology or hand signals. The active process of finding and interpreting these "breadcrumbs" seemingly reinforces their validity and significance through experiential learning. Meanwhile, related cognitive errors such as effort justification and the sunk cost fallacy increase their conviction, because the psychological cost of admitting one was mistaken is simply too great. And finally, the cycle of compulsive repetition caused by OCD can provide a further level of reinforcement.

Escaping the Cognitive Pitfalls

Conspiracy theories can be terrifyingly effective at ensnaring anyone with OCD symptoms or obsessive tendencies. Conspiracies take advantage of a number of different patterns of thinking: relational framing, narrative psychology, apophenia, explanation-seeking, and experiential learning. And once they get in your head, they quickly become self-perpetuating and self-reinforcing. These patterns are tricky to escape.

I wrote this post hoping that, by explaining these cognitive pitfalls, conspiracy adherents or their friends or loved ones might leverage this understanding to break the cycle of conspiracy. If any of the patterns I've described seem familiar, do your best to adopt a neutral, nonjudgmental stance and objectively evaluate your own behaviors and beliefs. Remember that every one of us is fallible, subject to the same cognitive distortions and biases; recognizing that you've bought into an obsessive fantasy requires self-understanding, courage and humility. There's no shame in stumbling down a misleading path, but there is clarity and dignity in returning to reality.

Copyright, Fletcher Wortmann, 2021.

References

Diehl, Virginia A. and Matthew Wyrick. “The Relationships Between Need for Cognition, Boredom Proneness, Task Engagement, and Test Performance.” SAGE Open: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015585606, First published June 4, 2015. Accessed January 25, 2021. p. 2.

Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, NY, 2011. pp. 204-5.

László, János. The Science of Stories: An Introduction to Narrative Psychology. Routledge, NY, 2008. p. 15.

Martineau, Paris. "The Storm Is the New Pizzagate — Only Worse." New York Magazine. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/12/QAnon-4chan-the-storm-conspirac…, First published December 19, 2017. (Contains link to: ENDGAME? THIS IS BIG INFOS SHILLS TRIED HARD TO BURY THIS, via “posting intel drops” link.) Accessed January 25, 2021.

Osberg, Timothy M. “The convergent and discriminant validity of the Need for Cognition Scale.” Journal of Personality Assessment, 51 3 (1987). p. 443.

Törneke, Niklas. Learning RFT: An Introduction to Relational Frame Theory and Its Clinical Application. Context Press, 2010. pp. 24, 75.

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